Bake 52: Crunchy Granola Bars

We are almost completely moved out of our old place, we just have a few random things left to take care of and a bit of cleaning to do.  Tonight we were there finishing some things up and Tyler broke 4 of my pasta bowls.  My pasta bowls that we got for our wedding and I have been in love with since day 1.  Every time we have moved, I have wrapped them meticulously and marked the box, "PASTA BOWLS, BREAK AND DIE."  They made the move from Utah to South Dakota, back to Utah, (I didn't take them to Texas or Hawaii, they were in storage) and to California all in one piece.  I broke one of them a few months ago and spent a significant period of time mourning.  And now we have moved 1 mile and broken 4 more.  Leaving only 3.  We can't even have a meal with them now.  This could possibly be the worst day of my life and I am currently restraining myself from choking Tyler with my bare hands.  (I could, possibly, be acting a bit dramatic right now....)

The second worst thing that happened today was when my granola bars didn't go perfectly.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but they are a bit brown.  I was supposed to toast the oats for 20-25 minutes before assembling the bars until they were light golden.  I went with 20 minutes and they were more like golden, golden.  Or maybe darker.  After the final baking, they were just too done and it came through in the taste.  It might be my oven, it might be California, it might be that this day was just out to destroy me from the get-go....who knows!  

Next time, I might go with 10 minutes and see what happens.  And I will make these again.  I can tell they have serious potential if I can get it right.  I omitted the cinnamon and added about 1/4 cup of coconut and a handful of chocolate chips when I mixed everything together.  No regrets there, I would do that part again in a heart beat.  Luckily I halved the recipe so we don't have quite a many reject-bars hanging around (we do have quite a few though).  And as an added bonus, Hadlee and I had a lesson on area and what pan would work to half the batch if the recipe called for an 18x13 pan.

 If you want to try the recipe, you can visit Emily's blog for the recipe.  Thanks for hosting this week Emily, I can't wait to try these again and make them better next time!

PS.  I hope to be back to regular posting soon!  I am starting to feel like getting back in the kitchen finally!